TY - JOUR A1 - Müller, Jörg A1 - Mitesser, Oliver A1 - Schaefer, H. Martin A1 - Seibold, Sebastian A1 - Busse, Annika A1 - Kriegel, Peter A1 - Rabl, Dominik A1 - Gelis, Rudy A1 - Arteaga, Alejandro A1 - Freile, Juan A1 - Leite, Gabriel Augusto A1 - de Melo, Tomaz Nascimento A1 - LeBien, Jack A1 - Campos-Cerqueira, Marconi A1 - Blüthgen, Nico A1 - Tremlett, Constance J. A1 - Böttger, Dennis A1 - Feldhaar, Heike A1 - Grella, Nina A1 - Falconí-López, Ana A1 - Donoso, David A. A1 - Moriniere, Jerome A1 - Buřivalová, Zuzana T1 - Soundscapes and deep learning enable tracking biodiversity recovery in tropical forests JF - Nature Communications N2 - Tropical forest recovery is fundamental to addressing the intertwined climate and biodiversity loss crises. While regenerating trees sequester carbon relatively quickly, the pace of biodiversity recovery remains contentious. Here, we use bioacoustics and metabarcoding to measure forest recovery post-agriculture in a global biodiversity hotspot in Ecuador. We show that the community composition, and not species richness, of vocalizing vertebrates identified by experts reflects the restoration gradient. Two automated measures – an acoustic index model and a bird community composition derived from an independently developed Convolutional Neural Network - correlated well with restoration (adj-R² = 0.62 and 0.69, respectively). Importantly, both measures reflected composition of non-vocalizing nocturnal insects identified via metabarcoding. We show that such automated monitoring tools, based on new technologies, can effectively monitor the success of forest recovery, using robust and reproducible data. KW - animal behaviour KW - conservation biology Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-358130 VL - 14 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Beetz, M. Jerome A1 - Kraus, Christian A1 - el Jundi, Basil T1 - Neural representation of goal direction in the monarch butterfly brain JF - Nature Communications N2 - Neural processing of a desired moving direction requires the continuous comparison between the current heading and the goal direction. While the neural basis underlying the current heading is well-studied, the coding of the goal direction remains unclear in insects. Here, we used tetrode recordings in tethered flying monarch butterflies to unravel how a goal direction is represented in the insect brain. While recording, the butterflies maintained robust goal directions relative to a virtual sun. By resetting their goal directions, we found neurons whose spatial tuning was tightly linked to the goal directions. Importantly, their tuning was unaffected when the butterflies changed their heading after compass perturbations, showing that these neurons specifically encode the goal direction. Overall, we here discovered invertebrate goal-direction neurons that share functional similarities to goal-direction cells reported in mammals. Our results give insights into the evolutionarily conserved principles of goal-directed spatial orientation in animals. KW - animal behaviour KW - navigation KW - neuroscience Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-358073 VL - 14 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bachert, Antonia A1 - Scheiner, Ricarda T1 - The ant’s weapon improves honey bee learning performance JF - Scientific Reports N2 - Formic acid is the main component of the ant’s major weapon against enemies. Being mainly used as a chemical defense, the acid is also exploited for recruitment and trail marking. The repelling effect of the organic acid is used by some mammals and birds which rub themselves in the acid to eliminate ectoparasites. Beekeepers across the world rely on this effect to control the parasitic mite Varroa destructor. Varroa mites are considered the most destructive pest of honey bees worldwide and can lead to the loss of entire colonies. Formic acid is highly effective against Varroa mites but can also kill the honeybee queen and worker brood. Whether formic acid can also affect the behavior of honey bees is unknown. We here study the effect of formic acid on sucrose responsiveness and cognition of honey bees treated at different live stages in field-relevant doses. Both behaviors are essential for survival of the honey bee colony. Rather unexpectedly, formic acid clearly improved the learning performance of the bees in appetitive olfactory conditioning, while not affecting sucrose responsiveness. This exciting side effect of formic acid certainly deserves further detailed investigations. KW - animal behaviour KW - animal physiology Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-358064 VL - 13 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Frank, Erik T. A1 - Kesner, Lucie A1 - Liberti, Joanito A1 - Helleu, Quentin A1 - LeBoeuf, Adria C. A1 - Dascalu, Andrei A1 - Sponsler, Douglas B. A1 - Azuma, Fumika A1 - Economo, Evan P. A1 - Waridel, Patrice A1 - Engel, Philipp A1 - Schmitt, Thomas A1 - Keller, Laurent T1 - Targeted treatment of injured nestmates with antimicrobial compounds in an ant society JF - Nature Communications N2 - Infected wounds pose a major mortality risk in animals. Injuries are common in the ant Megaponera analis, which raids pugnacious prey. Here we show that M. analis can determine when wounds are infected and treat them accordingly. By applying a variety of antimicrobial compounds and proteins secreted from the metapleural gland to infected wounds, workers reduce the mortality of infected individuals by 90%. Chemical analyses showed that wound infection is associated with specific changes in the cuticular hydrocarbon profile, thereby likely allowing nestmates to diagnose the infection state of injured individuals and apply the appropriate antimicrobial treatment. This study demonstrates that M. analis ant societies use antimicrobial compounds produced in the metapleural glands to treat infected wounds and reduce nestmate mortality. KW - animal behaviour KW - chemical ecology KW - entomology KW - microbial ecology KW - proteomics Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-358081 VL - 14 ER -